


Inner Monster

by Mara_DragonClaw



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-03
Updated: 2016-11-03
Packaged: 2018-08-28 21:11:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,015
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8463082
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mara_DragonClaw/pseuds/Mara_DragonClaw
Summary: After defeating Bill a year ago, the Pines twins are excited to return to Gravity Falls when summer roles around again. Little do they know, Bill has been working hard in a sub-dimension and is about to break free once more. And this time, he brought help...
Notes:*In this version, the zodiac-symbol spell worked and Bill was turned to stone without Stan having to loose his memories.*Also in this version, the original journals were not burned and are still in the possession of the Pines.*While I have seen most of them, I have not seen every episode [yet], so please keep that in mind. *While at this point I have seen all of Weirdmageddon, I had not when I started writing this.*All characters start out in their "original" forms. Ie, Bill is a triangle and the people are regular people, not monsters.





	1. Prologue

“Why are we doing this again?” Meril asked as she riffled through the top rack of the components shelf in search of ground unicorn horn.

“Because it’ll be funny to see them all freak out when they wake up in the morning, duh,” Bill repeated to his apprentice for what must have been the hundredth time as he floated around upside down.  

“Uh huh, and if you're so all powerful, then why do I have to collect components for it? Can’t you just… I don’t know… Snap your fingers and make it happen?”

Bill glared at her with his one eye, “Well for one, you need to learn this stuff. And for two, I’m not exactly as all powerful as I used to be,” he snapped his fingers and produced a sad looking puff of blue sparks, “and I won’t be more powerful until I can get that _thing_. Now are you done yet?”

Meril finally found the vial labeled _Ground Unicorn Horn_ , “Got it!” She hopped down from the ladder and landed elegantly on the floor. She walked over and handed it to Bill as he floated down from the ceiling.

“Perfect!” He exclaimed and held the vial full of powder up to his eye, “I’m coming for you Pines, _all of you_.”


	2. Welcome [Back] To Gravity Falls!

“Come on come on come on!” Mabel was rapidly jumping up and down and pulling Dipper off the bus that had just driven them from Piedmont, California to Gravity Falls, Oregon, as their parents had sent them off to it for the summer yet again after their grunkles Stan and Ford had gotten back from their trip around the world, and Soos had opened up in a different shack in an attempt to turn it into a chain business.

“Ow! Mabel! Stop pulling my arm!” Dipper was struggling to fit his backpack through the door of the bus, and Mable pulling his arm out of its socket didn’t help his efforts.

Mabel let go and crossed her arms, “Fine, just hurry up!”

Now that both of his hands were free Dipper turned around and yanked his backpack out from where it had been lodged between the doors. The bus shut the doors and took off immediately after, leaving the two kids standing on the side of the road that lead to the Mystery Shack.

Now that he was off the bus, Mabel started pulling on Dipper’s arm again, “Come on Dipper! Don’t you want to see everyone?”

“Yes Mabel, I want to see everyone. Now please, stop jumping! You giving both me and Waddles headaches!” A disgruntled oink came from Mable’s pack and Waddles poked his head out of the flap.

Mabel stopped jumping, “Whoops, sorry Waddles.”

“What about me?”

“We’re going to be spending all summer in the same room, you need to get used to the headaches.”

Dipper groaned. After three seasons of having his own room back, he had completely forgotten that he and Mabel had to share a room while they were staying with their grunkles. He started walking down the road in the direction of the Mystery Shack. Mabel ran ahead of him and took in the view of the forest that she hadn’t seen in so long. Dipper just walked along at a slow pace, nervous about what- or who, might be waiting for them.

Mabel screamed, causing Dipper to look up from where he had been staring at the road, “Mabel! What’s wrong?” He yelled and ran around the bend in the road the his sister had just turned. He almost screamed too. They had reached the Mystery Shack, and right in front of it stood the statue of Bill Cipher.

Mabel seemed to have calmed down, “Geez, that thing is still here?” Mabel walked towards it and reached out a finger to poke it.

Dipper ran up and grabbed her arm before she could, “Mabel! Don’t do that!”

“Relax Dipper, he’s dead. This is just a statue.”

“I know, but please, just… Don’t.”

“Fine,” Mabel retracted her hand, “Race ya!” She yelled and sprinted towards the shack.

“No fair!” Dipper ran after her. They both arrived breathless on the porch to the Mystery Shack. When she could breath again, Mabel knocked on the door. Dipper rolled his eyes, Stan was still too cheap to get a proper door bell, and Ford had just gone along with it.

A couple minutes later the door opened and their grunkle Stan gave them both a big hug, “Hey, Ford! The kids are here!” He yelled over his shoulder.

“All right! I’ll be down in a minute!” They heard their grunkle Ford yell from somewhere upstairs.

“Come on in guys,” Stan pulled twins inside the shack and closed the door behind them, “You can go dump your stuff in your room, Ford should be down by the time you're done.”

The twins nodded and ran up the stairs to where their room was. They slowed down as they approached the door and looked at each other. Mabel nodded. Dipper reached out and opened the door.

Dust motes shifted through the shafts of light let in by the triangle shaped window in the center of the far wall. A layer of the stuff had collected over most everything, and footprints were in it from where either one or both of their grunkles had changed the sheets on the beds that  were pushed against each of the walls. Over one of the beds were a bunch of peeling posters of various bands and unicorns, and over the other was a tackboard filled with notes and photos on conspiracies and weird occurrences around gravity falls.

The twins walked in, “Wow,” Mabel said as she picked up a photo of her and Dipper that was laying at the foot of her bed.

“It’s like we never left,” Dipper picked up one of the books he had left behind and blew dust off of its cover.

“Hey kids! Are you done up there yet?” Grunkle Stan called from downstairs. Both of the twins dumped their bags on their beds, they could unpack later, “Coming!” The both shouted and ran out of their room and down the stairs.

The living room was empty, “Where are you?”

“We’re in the kitchen!” They heard grunkle Ford call from the back of the house and they went into the kitchen, “There you are! Now let me have a hug too,” grunkle Ford smiled and opened his arms. He had become a lot more open than he had been last summer.

Dipper and Mabel both hugged him, happy to see that the twin brothers seemed to be getting along again.

“So what have you kids been up to?” Asked Stan as they all  took a seat at the table.

Mabel started listing off all the things she done and all the clubs she had joined after another year at middle school, “I’m on the party planning committee, the birthday committee, and I’m the proud president of the glitter club!”

“The glitter club?” Dipper asked nervously, he hadn’t heard that one before.

“It’s for people that appreciate glitter as much as I do! We do all kinds of glitter based activities including bedazzling, and my personal favorite: glitter balloon fights!”

“And that is..?” Grunkle Stan asked even more nervously then Dipper had.

“It’s like a water balloon fight, but better! We fill water balloons with glitter in our team color and throw them at each other.” Mabel was smiling so wide it looked like it would stretch off her face.

“Right… And you Dipper? What have you been up to?” Grunkle Ford asked, trying to get Mabel away from the topic of glitter before the room and everyone in it ended up covered.

“Me? Oh, umm… Well, I haven’t really joined anything new this year. I’m still on the chess club, and I thought about joining that conspiracy club that started this year, but after what I’ve seen, all of that stuff would look more fake than the stuff in the Mystery Shack. What happened with that anyway? I thought you said that when this was all over the Mystery Shack was closing.”

Ford crossed his arms and glared at Stan, “Well, after you kids left, Stanley pointed out that I was supposed to be dead, and that we need some way of making money. I still think the whole thing is stupid.”

Stan ignored him, “So, is there anything _else_ that you kids have been up to?”

“Anything… Else?” Dipper shifted uncomfortably and turned red. He didn’t like what Stan was implying.

“Yes!” Mabel shouted, excited that she got to share this, “Dipper-got-a-girl-friend!” She sang, causing Dipper to turn redder than a gnome’s hat.

“Mabel!” Dipper glared at her, then shifted uncomfortably in his seat. That year a new girl, Clary Ceder, had transferred to their school. She and Dipper had so much in common, with obvious exceptions, and the whole thing kind of just… Happened.

“Whoa! I had been expecting something with Mabel. Come on, who is she?” Stan elbowed Dipper.

“H-her name is Clary,” Dipper studered. This conversation was becoming a little uncomfortable.

“Have you kissed yet? Ow!” Ford had stepped on Stan’s foot, and Dipper was grateful for it.

“Leave the boy alone Stanly! Can’t you tell he doesn’t want to talk about this?”

“Of course I can tell, why do you think I’m asking? Ow!” Ford stepped on his foot again.

Dipper was desperate and used the distraction to change the subject, “So, grunkle Ford, anything new with your research?”

Ford seemed relieved to be off the topic as well and smiled when he answered, “Yes, actually. I’ve started on journal number four and have managed to find some interesting things to fill it with. Did you know that about a mile south of town there’s a cave full of these salamanders that can walk through fire?”

Dipper shook his head, “We never went out that far. We mostly stayed in the woods around the shack, and only went farther away when we were after something specific in the journal. Besides, shouldn’t all the weird stuff have disappeared after the rift closed?”

Both Stan and Ford shifted uncomfortably before Stan spoke, “You know how the stone statue of Bill is still in front of the shack?”

It was Mabel who answered, “Well, yeah, we saw it when we got here. Why is it still there anyway? Isn’t it a little creepy that the guy that tried to kill us all is standing on your front lawn?”

Ford picked up where Stan left off, “We haven’t moved it because we found that a rift opened near its base, and well…”

Dipper didn’t get why they couldn’t move the statue if there was a rift at the base. All that meant was that the weirdness of the mindscape had a small way to leak into the real world, and it had been going on for quite some time before the Pines twins had even heard of Gravity Falls.

“Oh, I’ll just tell them,” Stan continued after Ford had been quiet for what he considered to be too long, “We ran some tests on it to try and find out why there was a rift there, and we found something that looked suspiciously like vitals.”

Dipper went cold. If whatever it was that their grunkles found really were some sort of vitals, then that meant Bill could still be alive, “So… Do you think… Maybe..?” Dipper trailed off.

“Please Stanly! Let me finish explaining! It’s more complicated than that,” Ford sighed, “We think that Bill might have simply been trapped in a statue, not turned to solid stone, creating a sub dimension within our dimension that he now lives in. We don’t really know how it works, and we’re afraid that if we try to move the statue and something happens, Bill might be able to escape.”

~~~

That night, Dipper lay awake thinking about what he had learned that day. That Bill might still be alive, that Mabel had formed a glitter club without him knowing… That he was back at Gravity Falls for another summer. It was pretty late when they had arrived, and they hadn’t really gotten to talk to anyone besides their grunkles yet, but the whole gang from last year was going to meet up with them tomorrow for a reunion.

He just hoped he was ready...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If there are any character's that appear in here that I don't have marked, please comment and tell me so I add them. Thanks!


	3. Inner Monsters

Dipper woke up with his legs hanging off the bed. He opened his eyes,  _ Wait, what? _ His face was only an inch from the wall, and as far as he could tell he was laying straight, how could his legs be hanging off the bed? 

He closed his eyes to stretch and sat up. He swung his legs over to the edge of the bed, or, tried to. 

“What the..?” He opened his eyes and looked down at himself. 

Mabel woke up when she heard Dipper scream, “Ug, Dipper! What is it? Waddles and I were just-” she opened her eyes and looked at Dipper. She stopped talking. Dipper was sitting on the edge of his bed, and he had… two extra legs. Not to mention his normal legs were no longer human, “Um, Dipper?”

“Yes Mabel! I know! Oh crap this is bad,” Dipper looked over at his sister. Her blanket was falling off a little, “Oh boy…”

“What?” Mabel was, suffice to say, freaking out.

“Um, Mabel, you might not want to take your blanket off.”

Of course that just made her pull the blanket back. Dipper covered his ears when she screamed. Though, the reason she screamed was a little bit different than the reason Dipper has screamed, “Ahhhhh! I’m a mermaid! This is so awesome!” Mabel flicked her new pink fish tail into the air, “I need to see myself in a mirror!” Mabel jumped out of bed, and landed face first on the floor, “Oh, right. Dipper, come give me a hand would you?” She pushed herself over and sat up. 

“Um, okay, I’ll try,” Dipper slowly eased himself off of his bed and onto his four new legs. He looked down at himself,  _ Mabel is a mermaid, but what am I? _ He tried to take a step forward, and fell on his face. 

Mabel gave a that-must-have-hurt hiss in through her teeth, “You okay?”

Dipper pulled himself up and got back on his feet, “Yeah, I think so. How do you even get around with four legs?”

“I have no idea. Right now I’m trying to figure out getting around with  _ no _ legs!”

Dipper took a shaky step forward, moving his front right foot and back left foot at the same time. He repeated the process, alternating between front right, back left and front left, back right until he got over to where Mabel was laying on the floor. 

“Mabel! Look, I did it!”

Mabel rolled her eyes, “Yeah, just get me up will you?”

“Oh, right. Sorry,” Dipper extended his hand to his sister and pulled her up, well, tried to. He pulled her up, but he didn’t have any idea what to do then. It wasn’t like she could support herself. Before he could think of anything, he had to drop her. 

“Ow! Dipper!” Mabel rubbed where her butt had made contact with the hard wooden floor. 

“Sorry. You're heavy.”

“ _ I’M WHAT?!?! _ ”

Dipper panicked, “You're, um, pretty?”

Mabel glared at him, “Nice save. Really smooth. No wonder Clary likes you,” each word was laced with so much sarcasm that Dipper couldn’t even begin to come up with a response that would come close to competing. Though to be fair, Dipper isn't the best person when it comes to comebacks. Ever. 

“Whatever,” he shrugged it off, “I can’t hold you for long and you can’t stand on your own. Something tells me we’ll need some help from either Stan or Ford. Probably both.”

“Or, maybe I could try out my horse riding skills!” Mabel suggested with an evil look on her face. 

“H-horse riding skills? W-why would those help?” From the way she was looking at him, Dipper could guess, and he did not like it. 

“Dipper,” Mabel said sweetly, “turn around,” reluctantly, Dipper turned around to look at the rest of himself. Mabel giggled, “You, my bro, are a centar. Half horse. And you know what that means,” she smiled again. 

Dipper had turned back around to face her, “No, no, nononononono! You are not riding on my back! Besides, don’t you need legs so you can hold on?”

“Not if you ride lady style.” 

“Where did you even learn to ride horses?”

“That is for me to know and you to find out. Now pull me up and I’ll hop on.”

“Um, uh, are you sure I can hold you? Like I said before you're kinda he-” if looks could kill, Dipper would have been dead, “-pretty! You're kinda pretty!”  _ Geez I am not going to make it out of Gravity Falls alive _ .

“Oh, for pete’s sake just help me up already!”

“Fine!” Dipper reached his hand out again and pulled Mabel up. She pulled herself up so that she was sitting lady stile on Dippers back. 

“See Dipper? You can hold me fine. It isn’t like I’m heavy or anything-  _ right? _ ” Dipper nodded his head frantically, just wanting to let go of that whole thing while at the same time desperately trying to hold Mabel up, “Good. Now, let’s go see what this whole thing is about. Onward!” Mabel shouted and pointed out the door, resuming her usual, bubbly nature. 

Dipper took a few shaky steps towards the door. _ Hey, I think I’m starting to get the hang of this!  _ He made it all the way to the staircase without any mishaps. He looked down the stairs, “Um, Mabel, how am I supposed to get down the stairs while I’m carrying you?”  _ How am I supposed to get down them at all? _

“Hmm…” Mabel took some time to think, “Oh! I know!” She pushed herself off of Dipper’s back, using the handrail to the stairs to keep herself from slamming into the floor, “I’ve always wanted to do this!” She yelled and pushed herself feet- er, tail first down the stairs. 

“Mabel!” Dipper yelled after her. 

“Oof! Ow…”

“And how did you plan on stopping, again?”

“Shut up. Just get down here.”

“Right…” 

“Are you scared?” 

“No!” He yelled at her, “No…” He said again, much more nervously this time. He took a nervous step down the stairs.  _ One foot at a time Dipper, one foot at a time. _ He finally made it to the bottom after what must have been five minutes. 

Mabel fake yawned, “Well, that took you long enough. Come on!” She used the railing to pull herself back onto Dippers back. 

Dipper sighed and muttered under his breath, “Let’s just get this over with…” Dipper decided that the first logical place to look for their grunkles was the kitchen, seeing that it was sometime around nine in the morning. When he walked in both he and Mabel came *this* close to screaming their heads off. 

Sitting at the table was, what Dipper recognized to be from many nights scanning the journal, a gargoyle and a griffin… Man? He quickly realised that they must be Stan and Ford and reached around to cover Mabel’s mouth before she broke every window in the house. 

The griffin-man, whom Dipper was assumed was Ford, set down his coffee and turned to talk to the kids, “Ah, good, you're both up.”

Dipper didn’t really want to wait for the lecture he knew they were about to be given, “Would anyone care to explain to us why we’re both  _ half animal?! _ ”

Ford held up a hand- er, paw to try and calm Dipper down, “Whoa, calm down Dipper. The truth is, we aren’t really sure yet. I’ve been going through all of my research and haven’t found anything on this. I would suspect it has something to do the rift at Bill’s statue. Some of the ‘weird’ must have in some way affected us.”

_ Wow Sixer, almost spot on. It does have something to do with my statue, but not in the way you would think.  _

A disembodied voice floated around the room. Dipper’s fists clenched instinctively, “ _ Bill _ .”

_ Ah, Pine Tree, my old friend. How have you been? I haven’t seen you in forever! Oh, wait, no, I saw you yesterday. By the way, thanks for stopping Shooting Star from poking me. The birds are bad enough, I don’t need  _ her  _ bugging me too.  _

_ Anyway, I thought you might like to know what’s going on. This is a lot less fun for me if you can’t even fully appreciate something I’ve done. You see, I thought it would be hilarious to see the looks on your faces when I turned you all into something you had all called me over and over and over: a monster!  _

_ Of course, you were all supposed to be something gross like, I don’t know… Maybe a troll or something.  _ Bill’s voice became irritated,  _ My assistant kind of botched her assignment. She turned you into your  _ inner _ monster, a creature that represents your personality or whatever. Just to save you the trouble, I’ll give the rundown on why you became whatever you are now: _

_ Crescent, you're a gargoyle for… obvious reasons.  I’m actually a little surprised you didn’t get turned into a dragon, but eh. _

_ Sixer, you are what happens when the body of a griffon tries to adopt a humanoid form. It probably comes from the whole, “cunning and wise” thing they have going for them. Bleh.  _

_ Shooting Star, it would take an idiot to not see that you're a mermaid, which is why I’m saying it now. That would be you're playfulness. Can not say I’m surprised.  _

_ Pine Tree, ha! That is so cute! You're a… Well crap I don’t know what that’s called. The point is that they're curious, smart, loyal, half deer, and in my personal opinion, incredibly  _ annoying _!   _

_ Well, that’s all for now. And remember, I’m watching you. Hehehe…  _

The voice faded off into nothing. They all sat and stood in silence until Dipper broke it, “Are we going to talk about what just happened, or are we going to stand here forever?” Nobody really knew what to say. What do you say when you find out that the guy that tried to kill your family is back from what you thought was the dead?

Mabel absentmindedly looked down at her new fishtail, “Anyone else wonder what happened to our pants?” 

Everyone broke out laughing. Mabel always did know how to turn a bad situation into a good laugh. Then everyone started thinking about what she had said, and the room fell silent as they all began contemplating the answer. 

~~~

_ Meril almost dropped the vial of manticore venom she had been holding when Bill popped back into existence inside their small laboratory, “So, how did it go?” She asked absentmindedly as she poured the venom into another beaker full of dragon blood.  _

_ “Oh, it went wonderful!” The sarcasm in his voice was obvious, “You really blew it this time Meril. Not only are they their inner monsters, but the spell spread to the  _ entire town! _ Not to mention us. I had to go invisible! How ironic is it that my inner monster is a human man? I’m half tempted to clip those new wings of yours. Our two kinds don’t exactly get along.” _

_ Meril sealed the concoction in the beaker with a cork, “I would like to point out, that if you refer to me by my inner monster, I must refer to you by yours, and our inner monsters get along just fine, even if you're outer one doesn’t agree with my inner one,” Meril set the beaker on the table and stroked her new, snow white wings, “Besides, this whole thing isn’t my fault. You didn’t tell me that I had used northern strangle weed instead of southern strangle weed, and you also didn’t tell me that I was using too high a concentration of bladderwort oil. This is your problem now.  _ Fix it _.” _


	4. Reunion

Later that afternoon, after many failed attempts at getting dressed as well as many more failed attempts at moving a portable pool into the twins room for Mabel to use while she was a mermaid, they managed to arrange a meeting with their gang from last year. They all met at the Mystery Shack at exactly one o’clock, and both Dipper and Mabel were nervous and excited about seeing their friends again.

When the fateful hour finally came around, the twins were both waiting anxiously outside for everyone to start showing up. The first person to arrive was Wendy.

Dipper had been leaning against the corner of the house while Mabel was in a smaller portable pool that they had managed to pull together from various attractions around they mystery shack.

Wendy, seeing that she had become some kind of were-fox, and that Dipper was half deer, had decided it would be fun to sneak up behind him to test out whether or not they had also gained animal instincts. The answer was yes.

“AHHHHHHHH!!!” Both Wendy and Mabel broke into uncontrollable laughter at Dipper’s girlish scream. He just stood and glared at Wendy with his arms crossed, trying desperately not to blush.

When the laughter had died down they started catching up, “Hey guys, nice to see you got here alright! We were a little worried that your parents weren’t going to send you back here after Stan disappeared.”

“H-hey Wendy,” Dipper stuttered nervously. Even though he had a girlfriend, it was still weird talking to Wendy. At least now he had  an excuse for stuttering, “Hey, now that we’re back, want to trade hats again?”

“Sure! Now I can just come and bug you when I’m missing you,” Wendy elbowed him and switched their hats. Dipper felt a sense of nostalgia wearing the blue and white cap again. Unlike Wendy, Dipper couldn’t pull of the lumberjack style hat she had switched out for his baseball cap and hadn’t worn it that much over the school year. The other kids thought he was a dork anyway, he didn’t need to give them anything else to mock him with, “See you guys inside, K?” Wendy waved at them and went into the Mystery Shack.

After that ‘people’ started arriving every couple minutes. Dipper mentally noted what everyone had been turned into, _Okay, Soos is some kind of mud person, Robbie is… Wait, is he a zombie? Fiddleford is a devil, Candy is a fey, and Grinda is a rock giant. Gideon- wait, why is he here? Bother. Well, he’s a vampire, so that only leaves…_

“Pacifica!” Dipper’s train of thought was broken when Mabel called out to Pacifica, who seemed to be half snake.

_And Pacifica is a gorgon. Great. I hope she knows how to control it._ Dipper tried to remember what he had read about gorgons in the journals, and _really_ hoped that she knew that she needed to tie her hair, er, snakes back so that they couldn’t look at anyone. If she didn’t, things would be messy.

Pacifica heard Mabel call her name, and smiled and waved at her. Then she saw Dipper. She ran-or, slithered quickly… I guess- over to him and gave him a big hug. The thing is, when a gorgon “hugs” someone it tends to involve their snake tail, “Um… Pacifica…. Can’t… Breath…” Dipper gasped.

Pacifica seemed to realise what she was doing and quickly let go, blushing, “Sorry, I’m not really sure how to control this thing yet. The vases at our house are… Not good. I’m just so happy to see you both back,” Her face was bright red.

Dipper noticed that she had pulled back her hair-snakes and put an opaque hair net over their heads, _I wonder if she learned that the hard way…_ “Well, uh, it’s fine. I’m not exactly in total control of these either,” Dipper looked down at his deer legs, “So… How has it been going since the… _Incident_?” Dipper remembered that Pacifica’s family had gone from rich to close to dirt poor after her father had invested in demon stocks and bonds, which of course collapsed after Bill was defeated.

“Oh, well… It’s been going pretty well, all things considering. The company managed to make enough money to buy the mansion back from that old hillbilly. Things went back to pretty much normal… But it hasn’t really been the same since you two left…” Pacifica stopped talking and turned bright red, “Um, I’m going to go in now,” she quickly went inside.

“I wonder what that was all about?” Dipper asked, not really expecting Mabel to respond beyond shrugging.

“Ooo! Pacifica and Dipper, sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-”

Dipper cut her off, “What! Mabel, there will be no kissing! I already have a girlfriend! And besides, how do you know if Pacifica even likes me?”

Mabel looked at him the same way she did when Waddles tried to have a conversation with his reflection in mirror, “Um, Dipper, did that whole monster-change-thing make you go blind? Bro bro, girls don’t blush that much around a guy unless they like him. Trust me, I should know.”

“Why? Because you’ve had so many crushes?”

Mabel glared at him, “ _No_ , because I’m a _girl_ ! Besides, I haven’t _that_ many crushes.”

“Uh huh, just last summer there was Norman, Mermando, those clones,  Gabe- Hey!” Mabel had splashed him with water from her tub, “ _Fine,_ ” Dipper dropped it, “We should go in now. Everyone’s probably waiting on us.”

Mabel nodded. Dipper helped her onto his back and went inside.

“Okay, now that we are all here, we can start,” Ford began as the kids came into the crowded living room, “It appears that Bill has returned and cast some kind of spell meant to turn us all into monsters that backfired and turned us into what he called our _inner_ monsters. He also mentioned something about an assistant, so it appears that he has recruited help this time.”

“Bill is back? I thought we turned that dude to stone!” Soos called from where he was squeezed into a corner.  

“I’m afraid we have some bad news,” Dipper didn’t like where Ford was going with this, “This morning, I went to check on Bill’s statue. There was a giant crack down its center, and the words, ‘I’m back’ were carved into the bark of a tree standing next to it. However, when Bill talked to us we couldn’t see him, so there is a chance he hasn’t yet regained full power and was just a voice. But we must be on alert. He’ll be after us because, _most of us at least_ , are part of the cipher wheel that can be used to defeat  him.”

“Wait a sec then,” everyone turned to Pacifica, “If we can defeat Bill by holding hands and standing in a circle, then why don’t we just go outside and do it before Bill can do any real damage?”

“The problem with that,” Ford started talking again, “is that we have no idea how to turn ourselves back into regular humans. If we destroy Bill now, there is a good chance we’ll never find out. If we wait, then we might be able to trick him out of it.”

“But grunkle Ford,” Dipper had finally worked up the courage to say something, “if we let Bill run loose, he could destroy the world, even if Gravity Falls has a weirdness-barrier around it. If we get rid of him now, the worst thing that’ll happen is that we might stay monsters for a bit longer. To tell you the truth, I’m getting pretty used to it. I mean, the monster is supposed to be what we are on the inside, so maybe if we end up like this forever, it would be more true to ourselves. Or something. The point is, we need to get rid of Bill. Now.”

Ford thought on this for a moment, “I suppose you’re right. The world’s safety is more important than whether or not we’re monsters for a few more days. Come on, I guess we’re going outside.”

They all filtered out of the shack and into the yard. Ford began to draw the zodiac, and each of the representatives took their place on the wheel, with Mabel’s section being conveniently draw with her pool inside of it, “All right everyone,” Ford announced as he finished drawing and took his place on the cipher wheel, “hold hands!”

Everyone reached out their hands on either sides. Mabel didn’t like the way Gideon was looking at her as she held his hand, but she didn’t let go. They stood their holding hands for a full minute. Nothing. No glow, no sparks, and definitely no stone Cipher. Dipper was becoming frustrated, “Why isn’t it working?! It worked just fine last time!”

Evil laughter rang out through the woods as a figure dressed in a black and yellow suit stepped out from behind the Mystery Shack totem pole, “Aw, come on Pine Tree! Did you really think it would be that easy to get rid of me again? And Fordsy, all that research and you still didn’t know that a prophecy spell can only be used once? Ha! Maybe that’ll cut you down a peg.”

“W-whah?” Dipper didn’t understand why a guy in a stupid looking yellow suit was calling him Pine Tree. The it dawned on him, “Oh…” Just because he was in a kind of ticked off mood, Dipper decided to be stupid and taunted the man, who he could now see was Bill, “ _You're_ laughing at _us_ ? Ha! You told us about irony before, how you were turning us into something we had called you over and over again, but the spell worked on you too didn’t it? Man is your inner monster, isn’t it? _Cipher_?” Dipper dissolved into a fit of laughter. Bill had made fun of him enough, it was his turn.

Bill was fuming. Everyone else just stood there, clueless as to what was going on, “Ha. Ha. Ha. Very funny Pine Tree, but catching on to that before the rest of these _idiots_ doesn’t get you any smart-points. Besides, you missed another point: Your little spell isn’t working! And it will never work again! Ever! Prophecy spells are a one time use only kid, and you used yours. Now there’s a different spell you need to find. Just to be nice, I’ll give you a hint: This,” Wendy was illuminated in blue light as she was lifted off the ground.

“Hey! Put me down you psychotic former dorito!” Wendy had caught on too.

Bill continued, “Is one of your pieces! And oh, look at that, I’m about to take it out of play…”

“WHAT?! PUT ME DOWN!” Wendy started screaming as the blue glow she was surrounded in started turning into blue fire and she slowly disappeared. Before Dipper could do anything, she was gone.

“Well, and there goes one of my problems. Hehehe, See you ‘round Pine Tree!” Bill disappeared in a flash of blue light.

Dipper couldn’t move. Couldn’t do anything. Neither could anyone else. Only one thing ran through Dipper’s head, _Oh, it’s on Bill. Bring. It. On._

~~~

_“What the heck did you just do!” Meril yelled at Bill when he popped back into their underground lab._

_“What?” Bill asked he as if he couldn’t be expected to know anything._

_“You know what! I thought you said we wouldn’t just go around killing people this time, what happened to that?”_

_“Nothing happened to it Meril, you are just failing to see the bigger picture.”_

_“Bigger picture? WHAT BIGGER PICTURE?! You just killed that girl!”_

_“Ice? Na, she’s not dead. Just… preoccupied. ‘Course, I’m gonna let Pine Tree think she’s dead. At least for awhile.  It’s so much more fun when their intent on revenge. Hehehe…”_


End file.
